‘That’s the mistake that Karl Marx made’

Is this video the 21st century version of a photocopied 1980s Libertarian Alliance pamphlet? It contains Madsen Pirie explaining an economics concept in under three minutes. He tells me that he is going to do 20 videos, one a week.

Strangely, outside of lectures held by the ASI and IEA, there isn’t much video coming out of the UK libertarian scene. Over in the States, all sorts of organisations, especially Reason.tv, have done sterling work with online video. My instinct is that the returns on time for British libertarians doing video could be significant – and that Madsen’s videos will have quite an effect among young people exploring economics.

Here’s hoping he values a lapel mic more than the currency required to buy one, before he attempts another video in that TIE fighter echo chamber.

Or, hmm, maybe I value videos from him with better sound quality, more than I value a lapel mic. We could both become slightly more wealthy, if only I had an unused lapel mic and wireless system gathering dust on my shelves.

Agree with the previous post, this has the potential to be a great series of videos. However, the audio quality needs to improve. Would suggest a lapel or lavalier or boom mic to better isolate his voice and avoid the room echo.

Only I would add one point: that trade makes both parties wealthier ONLY IF the trade is freely chosen by both parties exchanging their own goods.

On this point, which should be obvious but somehow isn’t to everyone, hangs the reason government “stimulus packages” don’t work: because government commands the taxpayer to buy something the taxpayer didn’t freely choose to buy. Or, same thing, government buys something with money it takes from the taxpayer by force.

Value is in the head … until City B dams up the river supplying water to city A … then offers to sell water at a “reasonable” price. Or the Government makes you buy or sell things at its whim and its price.

Not, note, that I think THIS video is awful – I have not watched it – but that I think video as a medium for this purpose is awful.

(I am evidently very much an outlier, vastly preferring my exchange of ideas to involve the written word, except in cases where the ideas are such that they require visual or audible examples/explanation.

Value is in the head … until City B dams up the river supplying water to city A … then offers to sell water at a “reasonable” price. Or the Government makes you buy or sell things at its whim and its price.

Then the head’s opinion is of no importance.

Well yes but…value is in the head for trade. It is not ‘in the head’ if you are being robbed at gun point because ‘value’ (other than a person’s value of life) is only being calculated by one party, the one holding the gun. What you describe is not trade, it is simply one set of people coercing another, it does not pertain to economic understanding at all.

During my tenure at the Oxford Libertarian Society, we recorded all our lectures. Some have proved very popular and made the whole series much more worthwhile than physical lectures alone so I would recommend it:

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